Opening The Door to Movement

Date: 4 Sep 2026

When Ebony and the Far North Healthy Active Learning network invited our Subject Advisor Marisa to Kaitaia, the goal was to bring the Movement Progressions resource to life for local kaiako. What followed was a masterclass in what quality PLD can do.

The session was built to help kaiako articulate the place of Health and Physical Education in the New Zealand Curriculum, understand what movement learning is expected to look like at Levels 1–3, and – most importantly – experience it themselves. Rather than simply handing over a resource, Marisa grounded it in the bigger picture of what quality PE actually looks like in a classroom.

The feedback speaks for itself. Kaiako described the day as "fantastic," "amazing, relevant" and "so engaging," leaving with "heaps of takeaways" they began using immediately. One teacher now runs a movement board in her classroom, with tamariki heading outside every learning block for games like Rats and Rabbits and Pass the Pulse – and has already noticed calmer behaviour and deeper focus as a result.

The ripple effect reached leadership too. One principal shared that Marisa's kōrero shifted their thinking entirely – teachers don't need to be "sports coaches," they simply need to offer movement, and the connections between play, sport and physical education do the rest. That principal is now finding real traction with the Movement Progressions resource across their school.

There's also early interest from the local RTLB community in taking a version of this session to the region's principals' conference – a conversation we are thrilled to seeing coming to life.

It's proof that when PLD is practical, relevant and grounded in the curriculum, it doesn't just land in the room. It follows kaiako back to their classrooms and changes how tamariki spend their day.

Interested in bringing a session like this to your school or network? Reach out to our team for more information.